The Census Bureau of the U.S. Department of Commerce reports the value of the overall U.S. retail sector at US$4.7 trillion in 2014, growth of 3.8% on the previous year.

Retail sales up 3.8 percent is healthy economic growth, but it’s dwarfed by the growth in e-commerce, which is growing four times faster. Within the overall U.S. retail sector, retail e-commerce in 2014 grew 15% to $304 billion and is taking an ever-increasing share of the total market. E-commerce represented 6.5 percent of total retail sales in 2014, up from 5.8 percent in 2013 and 5.2 percent in 2012.

Within the American e-commerce numbers there is spectacular growth in the value of transactions being completed on mobile devices; m-commerce. Mobile commerce grew from $13.6 billion in 2011 to $42 billion in 2013 and $57 billion in 2014. That’s a 60% compound annual growth rate over the past three years.

With e-commerce and m-commerce growing so rapidly, it makes sense for manufacturers to capitalise on the American market opportunity with a strong online presence.

By all means spend the time to develop relationships with distributors and to build up product representation in stores in the thousands of shopping malls and main streets across America, region by region.

In parallel, get selling online with national reach right away and harness the power of the big online shopping marketplaces such as Amazon.com.

This is where ExportX excels, with proven expertise in representing brands on Amazon and regular consolidated shipments to the USA. Get started now.